coast of florida. 155-mile-per-hour wind speeds. that s just two miles short of a category 5 hurricane. it s expected to make landfall about 100 miles south of here in the port charlotte area. rain 12 to 24 inches across much of the florida peninsula, challenge create freshwater flooding. the impact of this will be felt by millions in florida. already 200,000 people without power. that s before the storm even makes landfall. this will uproot people s lives. its a life-threatening storm. this is the sunshine skyway bridge that we have pictures of. you can see the winds kicking up. it will have an enormous impact. let s go to chad myers first at the weather center. the 11:00 a.m. advisory out now. what do you see? still see the 155-mile-per-hour eyewall winds. inside the eye it could be down to 5 or 10 in the middle, but we re working our way onshore. the eye is not onshore. the eyewall is coming onshore. this is what it looks like from space, this is called the visible image
themselves and their families in a safe place now. the terms officials are using to describe what is coming is catastrophic, it is historic, with dangerous storm surge projected and also major flieding expected from sarasota to naples. 2.5 million people have been put under evacuation orders. many people we know have decided to stick it out, including our next guest, heather. she lives in sarasota. thank for you jumping on with us. what are you seeing right now? what s it like in sarasota right now? well, i m actually about 17 miles inland at lakewood ranch. we have big gusts. there is a lot of debris coming off the palm trees, some whistling. i can t actually open my front door, so i m sure in a few hours it s going to get worse. you re not in a mandatory
gun battle in the fight for libyan liberation. plus, war is hell. and there s been ten years of it. now a war widow needs your help. a man of god and an icon makes news on same-sex marriage. you are either for equal rights or not. the reverend joseph lowery turning 90 and taking a stand. it s all here on cnn. hello, everyone. thanks for joining us. i m don lemon. you are in the cnn newsroom. we re going to start tonight with two subjects consuming the nation for the last few days. politics and religion. more specifically, what is keeping republican voters from fully embracing mitt romney? if you believe the headlines out of the value voters summit, the annual conference for conservatives it could be his mormon religion. as candy crowley reports, many in romney s own party of doing what they can to sidestep the issue. thomas jefferson talked about the wall of separation between church and state. nobody said anything about separating church and politics, but every
even get back to it. it s moving probably 8, 10 miles an hour across the ground. so, you know, god help us. that s all. that s all we can do right now. [ sirens ] a whole different story in the east. remnants of tropical storm lee sweeping through the area. the storm left one person dead in mississippi, knocking out power to thousands all across the south. stocks deep in the red. the dow fell more than 250 points just after the opening bell. right now still hanging down. new concerns about europe s debt cries and the global economy weighing on investors. u.s. stocks plunged friday after a disappointing report showed no growth in jobs in august. two convoys of libyans allegedly loyal to gadhafi have fled to niger. a source says six high-ranking libyan officials were in one of those convoys. still no sign of gadhafi themselves. nato officials say it s to keep the libyan people safe an not to target the regime leaders. it s the first dahl day of the new job for general pet
are you playing card games? what are you doing. actually, right now i was just telling the guys here, i m charging my phone in my car. it s running in my garage so we can have cell phone power. but otherwise, we re just in there with flashlights and plenty of batteries food and water and everything that we did to prepare. are you worried about the next couple days, dee, what s going to happen with this rain. yeah, i am. we re lucky because we ve got a friend that s bringing us a generator, so we re going to have a generator tonight that we ll be able to at least keep our food and our freezer running. thank you so much for sharing that with us. you stay safe and dry and thanks for braifg the elements to talk to us. thank you. we re going to keep an eye on the conditions here. rain still coming down. not as windy as it was but the flieding is going to continue. what does it look like on the floor and the area around you i see some standing water and the